List of Famous people who died in 2002

Carlo Karges was a German musician who became a guitarist and songwriter for the rock band, Nena. He wrote the lyrics of Nena's most famous song, "99 Luftballons", released in 1983. He was attending a 1982 Rolling Stones concert at the Waldbühne in West Berlin, when they released a large mass of helium balloons into the air. He wondered how East German or Soviet forces might react if the balloons crossed the Berlin Wall, and thus he conceived the idea for the song about a major war resulting from misidentification of a mass of balloons.

Satish Dhawan was an Indian mathematician and aerospace engineer, widely regarded as the father of experimental fluid dynamics research in India. Born in Srinagar, Dhawan was educated in India and further on in United States. Dhawan was one of the most eminent researchers in the field of turbulence and boundary layers, leading the successful and indigenous development of the Indian space programme. He succeeded M. G. K. Menon, as the third chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1972.

François Périer, was a French actor renowned for his expressiveness and diversity of roles.

Robbinson Lantz Crosby was an American guitarist who was a member of glam metal band Ratt, earning several platinum albums in the US in the 1980s. Crosby died in 2002 from a heroin overdose and pneumonia with complications from AIDS.

Peter Carter was an Australian tennis player and coach. He is widely known as the first and most influential coach of Roger Federer.

Brad Dexter was an American actor and film producer. He is known for tough-guy and western roles, including the 1960 film The Magnificent Seven (1960), and producing several films for Sidney J. Furie such as Lady Sings the Blues. He is also known for a short marriage to Peggy Lee, a friendship with Marilyn Monroe and for saving Frank Sinatra from drowning. Dexter's tough-guy roles contrasted with his easygoing and friendly real-life personality.

Niki de Saint Phalle was a French-American sculptor, painter, and filmmaker. Widely noted as one of the few female monumental sculptors, Saint Phalle was also known for her social commitment and work.

Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo was the President of the Dominican Republic who served three non-consecutive terms for that office from 1960 to 1962, 1966 to 1978, and 1986 to 1996.

Catya "Cat" Sassoon was an American actress, singer and model.

Maury Troy Travis was an American murderer and suspected serial killer who committed suicide in custody in St. Louis County, Missouri, after being arrested for murder. Travis was named in a federal criminal complaint for the murders of two women. At the time of the murders, he was a hotel waiter and on parole for a 1989 robbery. While Travis claimed in a letter to have murdered seventeen women, some authorities were doubtful; others thought he may have murdered up to twenty women.